Banking Act 1987

32 Advertisement regulations

(1) The Treasury may after consultation with the Bank and the Building Societies Commission make regulations for regulating the issue, form and content of deposit advertisements.

(2) Regulations under this section may make different provision for different cases and, without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) above, may in particular—

(a) prohibit the issue of advertisements of any description (whether by reference to their contents, to the persons by whom they are issued or otherwise);

(b) make provision with respect to matters which must be, as well as matters which may not be, included in advertisements;

(c) provide for exemptions from any prohibition or requirement imposed by the regulations, including exemptions by reference to a person's membership of a class whose membership is determined otherwise than by the Treasury.

(3) Subject to subsection (4) below, any person who issues or causes to be issued in the United Kingdom an advertisement the issue of which is prohibited by regulations under this section or which does not comply with any requirements imposed by those regulations shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine or to both;

(b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both.

(4) A person whose business it is to publish or arrange for the publication of advertisements shall not be guilty of an offence under this section if he proves that he received the advertisement for publication in the ordinary course of his business, that the matters contained in the advertisement were not (wholly or in part) devised or selected by him or by any person under his direction or control and that he did not know and had no reason for believing that publication of the advertisement would constitute an offence.

(5) In this section "a deposit advertisement" means any advertisement containing—

(a) an invitation to make a deposit; or

(b) information which is intended or might reasonably be presumed to be intended to lead directly or indirectly to the making of a deposit;

and for the purposes of this section an advertisement includes any means of bringing such an invitation or such information to the notice of the person or persons to whom it is addressed and references to the issue of an advertisement shall be construed accordingly.

(6) For the purposes of this section—

(a) an advertisement issued or caused to be issued by any person by way of display or exhibition in a public place shall be treated as issued or caused to be issued by him on every day on which he causes or permits it to be displayed or exhibited;

(b) an advertisement inviting deposits with a person specified in the advertisement shall be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, to have been issued to the order of that person.

(7) For the purposes of this section an advertisement issued outside the United Kingdom shall be treated as issued in the United Kingdom if it is directed to persons in the United Kingdom or is made available to them otherwise than in a newspaper, journal, magazine or other periodical publication published and circulating principally outside the United Kingdom or in a sound or television broadcast transmitted principally for reception outside the United Kingdom.

(8) Regulations under this section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.